Karen Bruton believes capitalism can accomplish tremendous good. Not that she blindly trusts the morals of the free market, but rather, she says people can use money made from capitalistic endeavors to change the world for the better.

She calls this kind of work "impact capitalism."

"I look at impact as an action item," she said. "Do something. Don't just think about it, do it."

That is the mindset behind her Nashville-based nonprofit, Just Hope International, which was funded nearly entirely with returns from a hedge fund, one of the most aggressive investment vehicles in today's financial world.

The hedge fund makes the nonprofit financially sustainable, Bruton said. "I could get run over by a bus crossing the street, and Just Hope would be fine. The money is there, employees' paychecks would be there, and they could keep going with projects."

That money has gone toward several projects, including the rebuilding of a Peruvian village that was wiped out 15 years ago by a terrorist Communist group called the Shining Path. It also has gone toward her most recent project, which involves building a pineapple farm in a remote area of Sierra Leone.

Plan takes root

Bruton's solution depends on capitalism, too, she said. "The root of it is giving people jobs."

The idea is to connect the farm in rural Sierra Leone to a larger economic ecosystem.

"You have to play with the kids, go talk to the people, make yourself present and available, and you learn. One of the hardest things to learn to do is to take your American hat off," she said. "If you'll be quiet and listen, they will tell you what they need. They are very bright people. They know what their daily struggles are."

After years of speaking with chiefs and local council members, Bruton saw an opportunity for large-scale agriculture to lift people in a part of Sierra Leone out of poverty.

Just Hope then connected with an Italian-owned juice company called Africa Felix Juice. Executives there said they would be willing to purchase all the pineapple that Just Hope could grow.

So the group started a farm, working in concert with agriculture experts from Sierra Leone's Njala University, in the capital, Freetown. Today, a plot of land in the Bauya region has a farm with 90,000 pineapple plants, which have just been mulched for protection during the rainy season.

Ultimately, Bruton hopes to diversify Just Hope's crops in Sierra Leone so that the local people's jobs don't depend on just one commodity. In fact, the ultimate goal is for locals to run the farm, financially independent of Just Hope.

A unique model

The most effective nonprofits keep sustainability of the organization top of mind, said Lewis Lavine, president of Nashville's Center for Nonprofit Management. They also tend to have specific goals. He cites the nonprofit Blood:Water, which, when launched in 2004, set out to build 1,000 wells in Africa, a milestone that the group has hit.

Bruton's model is unique, he said. "A number of companies in town and around the country have charitable arms that mostly come from proceeds and profits," he said. "I haven't heard of a hedge fund doing that."

Bruton didn't foresee that happening, either. But two things coincided in her life: her desire to learn the stock market and her exploration of her own faith.

In 2006, she attended a 28-week class called "Companions in Christ" with 11 other people. "We talked and talked and really got into some very deep stuff, deeper than I had ever been looking at my faith," she said. "When I came out of that, I just said, 'I don't want to end my life looking back and saying I showed up for work every day and collected a check and just wrote checks to some charities.' It's not enough."

Her plans before she started Just Hope in 2007 were to invest her 401(k) and live off the return from her investment.

So she started studying the stock market. She devoted an hour every night to work and traveled weekends for business seminars.

She started managing her money and getting nice returns on her investments.

Bruton got so good at managing her own money that friends asked her to manage theirs. At first she refused, but gradually she worked out a way to use the return on investment of other people's money to float the foundation that supports Just Hope.

"I do not charge a management fee. I'm doing this for a different reason," she said. Instead, her fund makes money only if investors do. For every $100 an investor makes, $80 goes to the investor and $20 goes toward Just Hope.

This way, all of the organization's administrative expenses are paid through the foundation. This means that no charitable donations go toward overhead costs — something that Bruton said was important for her personal beliefs.

As for the hedge fund investors, some work with Bruton strictly because they like a decent return on their investments. But others love that Just Hope benefits too, she said.

Either way, the money itself is neutral, Bruton believes. It's what you do with it that counts.